php - relative path in require_once doesn't work

Question

I have the following structure

otsg
 > class
   > authentication.php
   > database.php
   > user.php
 > include
   > config.inc.php
   > encryption.php
   > include.php
   > session.php
 > index.php
 > registration.php

include.php file has the following

ini_set('display_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);

ini_set('include_path',ini_get('include_path').':/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/otsg/:');
require_once 'config.inc.php';
require_once '../class/database.php';
require_once '../class/user.php';
require_once 'encryption.php';
require_once 'session.php';
require_once '../class/authentication.php';

and in the index.php page I had included

require_once 'include/include.php';

When I open the page index.php I get the following warning and fatal error. I don't understand what causes this error. When I gave the absolute path it works. But absolute path is not a good idea i believe.

Warning: require_once(../class/database.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/otsg/include/include.php on line 9

Fatal error: require_once() [function.require]: Failed opening required '../class/database.php' (include_path='.:/Applications/MAMP/bin/php5.3/lib/php:/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/otsg/include/:') in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/otsg/include/include.php on line 9

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Use

__DIR__

to get the current path of the script and this should fix your problem.

So:

require_once(__DIR__.'/../class/user.php');

This will prevent cases where you can run a PHP script from a different folder and therefore the relatives paths will not work.

Edit: slash problem fixed